Young Women
8.0
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A vivid, bold and compelling new novel of female friendship and what it means to be a young woman,...
Literary Fiction Feminism
A System So Magnificent It Is Blinding
6.0
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LONGLISTED FOR THE INTERNATIONAL BOOKER PRIZE Are we free to create our own destinies or are we...
Literary Fiction Mental Health
Learwife
9.0
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‘I am the queen of two crowns, banished fifteen years, the famed and gilded woman, bad-luck...
Historical Fiction Retellings Shakespeare Literary Fiction
ClareR (6241 KP) rated The Galaxy and the Ground Within in Books
Feb 1, 2022
The Galaxy and the Ground Within is another look into the lives of a diverse group of people. Apart from a technological failure that strands the Five-Hops guests, nothing much actually happens in this novel (ok, something does happen about 3/4 of the way through, but I’m not saying what it is!), but what I really love about these books are the characters and how they’re explored and developed. The fact that they’re aliens is by-the-by. They have their own hopes and fears, cultural expectations and taboos.
Oh how i adore these books - it’s everything that I love in literature, be it science fiction, literary fiction or ANYTHING!
If you haven’t read The Wayfarers series (lucky you!), I’d say that you need to. And if you have and like me, you’ve been putting off reading the final book, it won’t disappoint you.
The File
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Debut author Gary Born erupts into the literary scene with a nail-biting thriller centered on...
Thriller Debut Novel
542 Days: Recollection
10.0
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Do you believe in magic? Calista Reed, a popular Hollywood actress at the height of her career,...
Demon Copperhead
10.0
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Demon Copperhead is a once-in-a-generation novel that breaks and mends your heart in the way only...
Historical fiction Literary fiction Retellings Coming of Age
Best of Friends
9.0
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A dazzling new novel of friendship, identity and the unknowability of other people - from the...
Literary fiction Pakistan London Historical fiction
Fire Rush
10.0
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This is our dancing time. Yamaye lives for the weekend, when she can go raving with her friends...
Historical fiction Literary fiction Music Race Women’s Prize Shortlist 2023
Hazel (1853 KP) rated The Ice-Cream Makers in Books
Dec 14, 2018
An intriguing blurb promises an incredible story about an Italian ice-cream making family, however the story is nothing like you expect. Ernest van der Kwast’s <i>The Ice-Cream Makers</i> is set between a small village in Italy and the busy summer streets of Rotterdam. The Talamini family has been creating innovative ice-cream flavours for over a century, running a successful and hard-working parlour in the Netherlands. The business is handed down from father to son throughout the years, but now eldest son Giovanni has broken the tradition.
Giovanni Talamini has no interest in making ice-cream and would much rather spend the day reading poetry. After pursuing a literary career, Giovanni is now the director of the World Poetry Festival. Younger brother Luca has been left to pick up the <i>spatula</i> of the family business, but he has a problem of his own. Giovanni faces a dilemma: cut himself of from his family entirely or help his brother out with his peculiar request.
The highly unusual request mentioned in the blurb of <i>The Ice-Cream Makers</i> does not actually surface until the latter stages of the book. For the majority of the narrative there is no clear storyline, however the detail and information van der Kwast provides about ice-cream making, poetry and European culture makes the novel entirely worth reading. The request itself is entirely unexpected and not at all possible to guess, but it is an oddly brilliant way of reuniting two estranged brothers.
It takes a while for the narrative to start flowing as it constantly changes time periods. Giovanni, the narrator, rarely speaks in the present tense and is constantly relating events from his childhood and adulthood interspersed with family history and historical knowledge. On occasion the book takes on the air of an autobiography as Giovanni gives an in depth insight to the life of his family and his break from tradition. There is also the odd chapter that becomes almost a work of non-fiction, providing the reader with highbrow literary references and factual information about the history of ice-cream.
Once the scenes caused by the male sexual mind have been glossed over, <i>The Ice-Cream Makers</i> becomes a beautifully written, almost poetical story that compels and engages the reader despite the lack of a clear-cut storyline. The literary references will appeal to the intellectual, scholar, philosopher or culture enthusiast, for this novel teaches and inspires as well as entertains.
The amount of research van der Kwast conducted is phenomenal. The accuracy (or so is presumed) of the historical factors implies the author had thoroughly investigated the subject matter prior to writing. It is almost as though van der Kwast lived the life of Giovanni; it is entirely believable – hence the sense of an autobiography. Although the nature of the novel’s theme suggests a serious tone, van der Kwast has included a great deal of humour in the form of Giovanni and Luca’s father and his questionable mental health.
The lack of a climax prevents <i>The Ice-Cream Makers</i> from being described as an exciting book, however its beautifully poetic prose makes up for this absence. The philosophical insight into poetry will make you think about life and admire Giovanni for insisting on making his own way in the world. Likewise, Luca’s quiet acceptance and perseverance in the family business is also an admirable feat. Readers with a dislike for descriptive sexual scenarios may feel uncomfortable in a few of the resulting scenes, however the general story compensates for these distasteful passages. All in all, a high-quality work of fiction.